Blessed Steve Belonger! That holy man of God who counseled my soul many times as a young believer! And one of his counsels was this: read Thomas Brooks' book Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices. He called it his favorite book.
Well, I've taken it up to read it. And oh how much help I've been getting for me and my house as we seek to serve the Lord and not Satan!
Section III is entitled, "Satan's Devices to Keep Souls From Holy Duties, To Hinder Souls In Holy Services, & To Keep Them Off From Religious Performances." Here he discusses many of Satan's devices in this regard. Device 7 is this: "By casting in a multitude of vain thoughts, whilst the soul is in seeking of God, or in waiting on God." Brooks goes on, "By this device [Satan] hath cooled some men's spirits in heavenly services, and taken off, at least for a time, many precious souls from religious performances."
Well, what are the remedies for this device of Satan? Brooks gives seven:
Remedy 1: "Have your hearts strongly affected with the greatness, holiness, majesty, and glory of that God before whom you stand, and with whom your souls do converse in religious services."
Remedy 2: "Be peremptory in religious services, notwithstanding all those wandering thoughts the soul is troubled with."
Remedy 3: "Consider this, that those vain and trifling thoughts that are cast into our souls, when we are
waiting upon God in this or that religious service, if they be not cherished and indulged, but abhorred, resisted, and disclaimed, they are not sins upon our souls, though they may be troubles to our minds; they shall not be put upon our accounts, nor keep mercies and blessings from being enjoyed by us."
Remedy 4: "Solemnly consider that watching against sinful thoughts, resisting sinful thoughts, carries with it the sweetest and strongest evidence of the truth and power of grace, and of the sincerity of your hearts, and is the readiest and the surest way to be rid of them."
Remedy 5: "Labour more and more to be filled with the fullness of God, and to be enriched with all spiritual and heavenly things."
Remedy 6: "Keep up holy and spiritual affections; for such as your affections are, such will be your thoughts."
Remedy 7: "Avoid a multiplicity of worldy business."
The enlargements upon each remedy are worthy of careful and prolonged meditation. I bless God for wise counsel from ages past! For such counsel and wisdom is regrettably rare today, at least in America, not least in much of so-called evangelicalism. Again and again I find that I get more help from older writers than newer. We should all heed C. S. Lewis' advice to avoid chronological snobbery in our reading. Per Lewis, for every two modern books we read, we should read at least one outside of our century. And the Puritans should be on that reading list fairly regularly. They were strong where we are weak!
Friday, February 26, 2010
Monday, February 22, 2010
Eighth Wheaton College President Appointed
Good news from Wheaton College! Dr. Philip Graham Ryken has been selected to lead Wheaton College into its next chapter. This appointment ought to be cause for thanksgiving to God, not least because Wheaton College is in need of strong, faithful evangelical leadership if she is going to avoid institutional shipwreck. Hit the title of this post for the link to Wheaton's website announcement of this selection. See below for this same announcement from Wheaton. See also this link for Justin Taylor's update: http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justintaylor/2010/02/20/philip-ryken-new-president-of-wheaton-college/.
Dear Friends,
On behalf of the Board of Trustees, I am pleased to announce the selection of Dr. Philip Graham Ryken '88 as the eighth president of Wheaton College.
On the evening of Friday, February 19, the Board of Trustees voted to ratify Dr. Ryken's nomination by the Presidential Selection Committee. The unanimous vote reflects our deep confidence in Dr. Ryken's ability to articulate and exemplify the College's mission, and our conviction that he will provide strong academic and Christ-centered leadership for this new chapter in the life of Wheaton College, as well as in the academy at large.
Dr. Ryken readily affirms the College motto and mission not only through his words, but also in the way he has lived his life as an academic, a pastor, and a man dedicated to his family. We are indeed grateful to the Lord for His call on Dr. Ryken's life, and for His provision of a president who will hold the preeminence of Jesus Christ and His Kingdom above all else as he becomes integral to the future of Wheaton College.
Sincerely yours,
David K. Gieser
Chairman
Board of Trustees
Dear Friends,
On behalf of the Board of Trustees, I am pleased to announce the selection of Dr. Philip Graham Ryken '88 as the eighth president of Wheaton College.
On the evening of Friday, February 19, the Board of Trustees voted to ratify Dr. Ryken's nomination by the Presidential Selection Committee. The unanimous vote reflects our deep confidence in Dr. Ryken's ability to articulate and exemplify the College's mission, and our conviction that he will provide strong academic and Christ-centered leadership for this new chapter in the life of Wheaton College, as well as in the academy at large.
Dr. Ryken readily affirms the College motto and mission not only through his words, but also in the way he has lived his life as an academic, a pastor, and a man dedicated to his family. We are indeed grateful to the Lord for His call on Dr. Ryken's life, and for His provision of a president who will hold the preeminence of Jesus Christ and His Kingdom above all else as he becomes integral to the future of Wheaton College.
Sincerely yours,
David K. Gieser
Chairman
Board of Trustees
Friday, February 19, 2010
Supper and Psalms
Em and I have found a few sections of the Psalms to be especially good portions for regular, repetitious reading as we sit down for meals. They're short, tied together thematically, and they provide an aroma and atmosphere of gratitude and praise, trust and hope, wonder and awe at the table. Pss. 145-150 are great for lifting up our hearts in praise and thanksgiving to the Lord. Pss. 120-134, the Songs of Ascents, are hope-filled as we eat in the midst of our enemies and move toward our Jerusalem above. Pss. 93-100 are royal psalms setting forth YHWH's holy majesty and absolute dominion, and it is before this God we eat and drink, rise up and sit down, live out all our ways.
These are sections of Scripture that can easily get worked into regular meal times and that can provide a healthy and holy atmosphere (in part through the repetiton) for children who grow up as "olives shoots" around our tables.
While we often read psalms at dinner, right now we're actually working through bits of the Westminster Confession. It too is marvelous dinner time stuff, helping me to lift up our hearts to God in gratitude over our food while recalling the day's mercies and provisions, assisting oftentimes our conversation by flavoring our discussions with God talk.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Advice on Reading Well
This post is swiped from Justin Taylor's blog: Between Two Worlds: http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justintaylor/.
Philosopher Francis Bacon wrote in the 16th century:
Some books are to be tasted,
others to be swallowed,
and some few to be chewed and digested.
Susan Wise Bauer uses this as a springboard to talk about the three stages to understanding any book: the grammar stage, the logic stage, and then the rhetoric stage:
First, you read the book at what I call the “grammar stage” level; just get through the book and try to understand the basic principles, the basic story, the basic argument. Don’t try to understand all of the book. Just create a mental overview of the ideas. The second stage of reading is the logic stage: after you’ve read the whole book, stop and think about what the book is saying, how it’s saying it, and try to decide whether or not you agree with it. And then, finally, you enter the third stage of reading: the rhetoric stage, in which you form an opinion about the book. Unfortunately, we have been trained from our earliest days to pick up a piece of writing and go straight to the rhetoric stage. Our first question, after we read twenty pages, is “What do I think about this book?” This habit of thought is epidemic, something that we’re taught to do from very early on.
She argues that we usually skip stages one and two and jump immediately to stage three, asking, “What does this mean? Do I understand it? Do I agree?” In order to understand, we first need to do the first two stages.
How? She suggests: First: go all the way through the book one time. Just turn all the pages. Mark anything that’s difficult, and keep going. Second: once you’ve gotten all the way through to the end of the book, go back to the marked sections. Rethink those parts that you didn’t understand. Reread the pages that seemed confusing to you. Eighty percent of the time, if you’ve gotten all the way to the end of the book, those initially puzzling paragraphs won’t puzzle you any more. You’ll see how they fit into the whole. Third: form an opinion. Talk to a friend about the book. Get a reading buddy. Promise each other that you are going to read the same book all the way through, reexamine the difficult parts, and then tell each other what you think about the book’s ideas. Explaining your opinions to someone else is the very best way to figure out what you really think. (And remember: to refuse to have an opinion until you come back to a book a second and then a third time is a very revolutionary thing to do.)
She then offers two additional suggestions. First: Keep a reading journal as a way of helping you to remember what your opinions are on each book. Second: Consider reading chronologically in a single genre: fiction, poetry, drama, history, autobiography. Every writer builds on the work of those who came before. When you read chronologically, you begin to see the same techniques and strategies re-used, or re-imagined. The first epic poem you read is horribly difficult. The second is easier, because you recognize some of the elements you encountered in the first. The third is easier yet. But if you read first a poem, and then a play, and then a novel, you begin from ground zero of understanding each time.
Here is the link to Bauer's whole article: http://www.memoriapress.com/articles/Stop-cleaning-the-kitchen.html.
Philosopher Francis Bacon wrote in the 16th century:
Some books are to be tasted,
others to be swallowed,
and some few to be chewed and digested.
Susan Wise Bauer uses this as a springboard to talk about the three stages to understanding any book: the grammar stage, the logic stage, and then the rhetoric stage:
First, you read the book at what I call the “grammar stage” level; just get through the book and try to understand the basic principles, the basic story, the basic argument. Don’t try to understand all of the book. Just create a mental overview of the ideas. The second stage of reading is the logic stage: after you’ve read the whole book, stop and think about what the book is saying, how it’s saying it, and try to decide whether or not you agree with it. And then, finally, you enter the third stage of reading: the rhetoric stage, in which you form an opinion about the book. Unfortunately, we have been trained from our earliest days to pick up a piece of writing and go straight to the rhetoric stage. Our first question, after we read twenty pages, is “What do I think about this book?” This habit of thought is epidemic, something that we’re taught to do from very early on.
She argues that we usually skip stages one and two and jump immediately to stage three, asking, “What does this mean? Do I understand it? Do I agree?” In order to understand, we first need to do the first two stages.
How? She suggests: First: go all the way through the book one time. Just turn all the pages. Mark anything that’s difficult, and keep going. Second: once you’ve gotten all the way through to the end of the book, go back to the marked sections. Rethink those parts that you didn’t understand. Reread the pages that seemed confusing to you. Eighty percent of the time, if you’ve gotten all the way to the end of the book, those initially puzzling paragraphs won’t puzzle you any more. You’ll see how they fit into the whole. Third: form an opinion. Talk to a friend about the book. Get a reading buddy. Promise each other that you are going to read the same book all the way through, reexamine the difficult parts, and then tell each other what you think about the book’s ideas. Explaining your opinions to someone else is the very best way to figure out what you really think. (And remember: to refuse to have an opinion until you come back to a book a second and then a third time is a very revolutionary thing to do.)
She then offers two additional suggestions. First: Keep a reading journal as a way of helping you to remember what your opinions are on each book. Second: Consider reading chronologically in a single genre: fiction, poetry, drama, history, autobiography. Every writer builds on the work of those who came before. When you read chronologically, you begin to see the same techniques and strategies re-used, or re-imagined. The first epic poem you read is horribly difficult. The second is easier, because you recognize some of the elements you encountered in the first. The third is easier yet. But if you read first a poem, and then a play, and then a novel, you begin from ground zero of understanding each time.
Here is the link to Bauer's whole article: http://www.memoriapress.com/articles/Stop-cleaning-the-kitchen.html.
Friday, February 12, 2010
The Gospel According to St. Mark
A century ago, Martin Kahler famously described the form of the Gospels as "passion narratives with extended introductions." And that is dead on!
Consider, for example, Mark's Gospel. It falls into two main sections. The first section is roughly chapters 1-8. Here the narrative is action-packed and focuses on Jesus' powerful ministry of gathering disciples and doing mighty deeds that astonish the crowds. Mark 8:27-30 functions then as a watershed in the narrative, a hinge around which the story turns and then moves inexorably to the cross. After Peter confesses on the road to Caesarea Philippi that Jesus is the Christ, Jesus abruptly begins teaching about his impending suffering and death. And henceforth all presses forward toward the cross. Roughly half, therefore, of the Gospel is devoted to Jesus' sufferings. The crucifixion of the Christ is central indeed to the Gospel and the once-for-all-delivered-to-the-saints faith.
How large a shadow does the cross cast in our lives and preaching and teaching?
Consider, for example, Mark's Gospel. It falls into two main sections. The first section is roughly chapters 1-8. Here the narrative is action-packed and focuses on Jesus' powerful ministry of gathering disciples and doing mighty deeds that astonish the crowds. Mark 8:27-30 functions then as a watershed in the narrative, a hinge around which the story turns and then moves inexorably to the cross. After Peter confesses on the road to Caesarea Philippi that Jesus is the Christ, Jesus abruptly begins teaching about his impending suffering and death. And henceforth all presses forward toward the cross. Roughly half, therefore, of the Gospel is devoted to Jesus' sufferings. The crucifixion of the Christ is central indeed to the Gospel and the once-for-all-delivered-to-the-saints faith.
How large a shadow does the cross cast in our lives and preaching and teaching?
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
The Kingdom of God
Many, following George Eldon Ladd, speak of the kingdom of God as the eschatological realm of salvation. While this fits a good deal of data and evidence, I'm not persuaded that it is comprehensive enough. It perhaps has helped contribute to a truncated worldview and Christianity. It is helpful, but perhaps also damaging. I'll explain why I think this is so, but I confess the need to work through these matters still more.
This notion of the kingdom of God as merely the eschatological realm of salvation is too narrow. The kindgom of God no doubt includes the realm of salvation, but it also includes more. Check all the texts, and see for yourself. It seems to me that a better way of describing it would be this: the kindgom of God that dawned with the coming of the Sun of Righteousness is the eschatological reign of God in Christ broken into the present in the life, ministry, death, burial, resurrection, accension, and session of King Jesus. And this cannot be confined to touching only those who are touched by saving grace, for all--saved and unsaved alike--live under this eschatological reign not yet consummated, some sweetly and submissively (enjoying it in a peculiar way), some bitterly and sinfully (experiencing it in a different way).
Jesus is Lord of all, including unbelievers--but not savingly. Obviously. Nevertheless, since he has been given all authority in heaven and on earth, he is the Lord of the whole world. He is King of kings, Lord of lords. All must be told to bend the knee, for all are under this reign that moves on into eternity. American democracy and secularization does not mean that Jesus is only Lord of the church! Ladd's view is plausible, I suggest, because of our context, and I'm thinking particularly of our silly notions of the separation of church and state.
Well, more on this later. I'm still working through the texts on this one, but thus far Ladd is not totally satisfying. I rather marvel that so many have been so impressed with his work, even though I acknowledge that there is much that is valuable there.
This notion of the kingdom of God as merely the eschatological realm of salvation is too narrow. The kindgom of God no doubt includes the realm of salvation, but it also includes more. Check all the texts, and see for yourself. It seems to me that a better way of describing it would be this: the kindgom of God that dawned with the coming of the Sun of Righteousness is the eschatological reign of God in Christ broken into the present in the life, ministry, death, burial, resurrection, accension, and session of King Jesus. And this cannot be confined to touching only those who are touched by saving grace, for all--saved and unsaved alike--live under this eschatological reign not yet consummated, some sweetly and submissively (enjoying it in a peculiar way), some bitterly and sinfully (experiencing it in a different way).
Jesus is Lord of all, including unbelievers--but not savingly. Obviously. Nevertheless, since he has been given all authority in heaven and on earth, he is the Lord of the whole world. He is King of kings, Lord of lords. All must be told to bend the knee, for all are under this reign that moves on into eternity. American democracy and secularization does not mean that Jesus is only Lord of the church! Ladd's view is plausible, I suggest, because of our context, and I'm thinking particularly of our silly notions of the separation of church and state.
Well, more on this later. I'm still working through the texts on this one, but thus far Ladd is not totally satisfying. I rather marvel that so many have been so impressed with his work, even though I acknowledge that there is much that is valuable there.
Monday, February 1, 2010
Do Practice and Profession Match?
Jonathan Edwards' sermon on Mt. 11:16-19 has this as its basic doctrine: "Wicked men are very inconsistent with themselves."
Here is a slice from that sermon:
"So some of them may profess that they have had great discoveries made to their souls of God's glory and excellency, and that they have seen how much more glorious God is than all earthly things. But if it be so, why do not they cleave to God, and follow him, rather than other things? If they have known God to be so much more excellent than the things of the world, because they have had acquaintance with God, why do they in their practice cast off God for the sake of the things of the world; why do they in their practice prefer a little of the world, a little worldly gain, a little worldly honor, or a little worldly convenience or pleasure, before God? Certainly, if God be more excellent than the whole world, as they profess that they have seen him to be, then surely he is worth more than so small a part of the world.
So they may tell what love they have found in their hearts to God, how they have found their hearts drawn out in love to him at different times. But if they love him so well, why do they take no more care to please him; why are they so careless of his honour, and of their duty to him; why do they allow themselves in practices which they know he hates, and utterly forbids?"
"They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work" (Tit. 1:16).
Here is a slice from that sermon:
"So some of them may profess that they have had great discoveries made to their souls of God's glory and excellency, and that they have seen how much more glorious God is than all earthly things. But if it be so, why do not they cleave to God, and follow him, rather than other things? If they have known God to be so much more excellent than the things of the world, because they have had acquaintance with God, why do they in their practice cast off God for the sake of the things of the world; why do they in their practice prefer a little of the world, a little worldly gain, a little worldly honor, or a little worldly convenience or pleasure, before God? Certainly, if God be more excellent than the whole world, as they profess that they have seen him to be, then surely he is worth more than so small a part of the world.
So they may tell what love they have found in their hearts to God, how they have found their hearts drawn out in love to him at different times. But if they love him so well, why do they take no more care to please him; why are they so careless of his honour, and of their duty to him; why do they allow themselves in practices which they know he hates, and utterly forbids?"
"They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work" (Tit. 1:16).
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